If you're thinking of applying to Oxford University, you'll have heard about the Norrington Table. It was devised by Sir Arthur Norrington, president of Trinity College in 1962. The table ranks and rates Oxford colleges on the exam results of undergraduate students taking their finals.

For many years the University tried to prevent its publication, but newspapers and students joined forces to gather the data by hand. However inaccuracies were rife: in 2004, missing data led to St Catherine's being accidentally promoted 13 places. In 2005, the University published its own official rankings for the first time. In 2007, Merton College were once again top.

Of course these rankings should be taken with a large pinch of salt, other resources like The Times Good University Guide produce entirely different rankings for universities and colleges.

Year

2000

2001

2001rev

2002

2003

2004

2004rev

2005

2005rev

2006

2007

Merton

1

6

3

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

1

Magdalen

3

6

7

5

3

6

3

4

4

3=

2

Christ Church

4

5

9

7

8

20

18

9

9

6

3

Balliol

9

1

1

10

5

4

4

3

3

2

4

New

6

4

3

3

7

11

7

15

15

3=

5

St John's

2

2

2

2

6

2

2

2

1

5

6

Trinity

13

18

17

22

11

23

23

14

14

9

7

Lincoln

21

8

6

20

22

16

13

25

24

8

8

Hertford

10

12

10

16

19

5

8

6

6

17

9

Pembroke

27

23

22

27

25

22

24

17

17

23

10

Worcester

17

14

15

13

12

12

21

20=

20=

14

11

St Edmund Hall

20

26

26

18

20

9

9

24

25

13

12

St Anne's

24

16

18

6

8

17

15

8

8

22

13

University

11

13

13

12

4

25

26

5

5

10

14

Jesus

12

15

14

9

13

7

5

13

13

19

15

Queen's

25

21

21

14

27

26

27

20=

20=

12

16

Wadham

7

21

20

11

2

8

6

11

11

7

17

Keble

14

17

19

15

21

20

19

10

10

26

18

Somerville

8

28

28

24

28

15

17

12

12

16

19

St Peter's

26

29

29

19

18

10

11

27

26

27

20

Brasenose

18

3

5

25

13

24

20

18

18

15

21

Lady Margaret Hall

16

24

25

29

29

27

28

29

29

18

22

Corpus Christi

19

9

8

8

15

14

10

16

16

11

23

Exeter

5

10

12

26

9

13

12

7

7

25

24

St Hugh's

23

19

24

17

17

18

14

28

28

24

25

St Catherine's

22

20

16

4

16

3

16

22

22

21

26

St Hilda's

28

25

23

21

24

30

30

23

23

20

27

Mansfield

29

27

27

28

26

29

29

19

19

29

28

Oriel

15

11

11

23

23

19

25

26

27

28

29

Harris Manchester

30

30

30

30

30

28

22

30

30

30

30

A note about the tables

Final year students score 5 for a first, 3 for a 2:1, 2 for a 2:2 and 1 for a 3rd. The ranking is based on (actual score)/(possible score). Strangely, there's no decent compilation of Norrington Tables on the web, so this is compiled from a number of sources. The Cambridge University equivalent is the Tompkins Table. There is no present way to compare Oxbridge colleges directly!